New Year Resolution

A New Year resolution that’s good for you and the planet: stop eating meat.

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Choosing to live a life with less in an eco-friendly way goes far beyond what you consume, what you drive or whether you use plastic bags. It can also be drastically affected by what you choose to eat – or avoid eating, for that matter. Yep, you guessed it: I’m talking about meat.

As a curious 18-year-old, I researched how a pig becomes a pork chop. It turned me into a vegetarian.

In addition to being an unapologetic hippie, a toy denier and one step away from joining a commune and singing Kumbaya, I am also vegetarian – just like 4 million others in the UK, 7.3 million in the US, and 1.3 million in my home and native land of Canada.

As the rush of the Christmas season fades away and New Year’s Day rapidly looms, consider avoiding resolutions you won’t keep (are you really going to the gym five times a week?) and try a meatless (or even meat-reduced) diet instead. You may find that the benefits work for you, just like they work for millions of others around the globe.

Why? A meatless diet boasts improved overall health, reduces grocery bills and provides a helpful boost to our struggling ecosystem. I’ll readily admit, however, that turning my back on hot dogs and chicken breasts wasn’t initially an environmental choice for me, but an ethical one. As a curious 18-year-old, I researched how a pig becomes a pork chop and it turned my stomach. I couldn’t face the true cost of my diet – the unimaginable cruelty, suffering and loss of life simply so I could enjoy a hamburger.

The horrifying conditions endured by the animals we eat is still the biggest motivating factor in my choice to be a vegetarian, but in the past few years the effects of a meatless diet have been shown to benefit far more than the collective consciences of bleeding hearts like me.

It turns out that raising animals for slaughter isn’t just bad for the unlucky cows, pigs, chickens and lambs; studies are increasingly shown that it takes a drastic toll on the environment too. As a result, someone who eats a diet high in meat accounts for almost double the climate-killing carbon dioxide emissions of a typical vegetarian.

When you break it down further into environmental cost per calorie, the impact of beef, for example, is monstrous. Raising beef cattle requires 160 times more land and causes 11 times more greenhouse gas emissions when compared to crops like wheat, rice or potatoes (finally – a reason to ditch the carb-free diet!).

The environmental benefits of eliminating or even reducing meat from your diet are compelling, but don’t think you have to ditch the bacon for purely altruistic motives – the benefits will quickly kick back to you too.

Numerous studies demonstrate that vegetarians have lower incidences of heart disease, lower BMI and lower blood pressure than their meat-eating counterparts. And according to the World Cancer Research Fund eating too much meat can increase your risk of bowel cancer. They recommend that you should eat no more than 500g (cooked weight) per week of red meat to reduce this risk. Being overweight, drinking alcohol and eating processed meat can also increase your risk of bowel cancer.

Of course, I can sit here spouting statistics all day demonstrating the benefits of a vegetarian diet to the environment and to you – they certainly exist in spades – but is that really likely to change your mind? Are numbers and percentage points enough to change how your dinner table looks after 30, 40 or 50 years?

Change can be terrifying, even when (or perhaps especially when) you know it’s good for you. For many, the idea of a table without meat simply looks like a whole lot of side dishes. Vegetables have long been relegated to boring lead-ups to the main event, middling sidekicks to beefy superheros – delicious, maybe, but just not quite enough. And for men especially, giving up meat and labelling themselves a capital-V vegetarian feels so drastic, like adopting a whole new persona, or wearing a wild new wardrobe that doesn’t quite fit.

If the thought of giving up meat whole-hog overwhelms you, don’t feel like you need to go all-in right from the start. Try just dipping your toe in at first. As with all environmental endeavors, it pays to start small and keep it sustainable. The online world is rich with hearty, filling and scrumptious recipes with nary an ounce of meat required, so try just one or two meatless meals a week to start. A few of my favourites are black bean and spinach enchiladas, spaghetti squash chow mein, and an Asian quinoa slaw dish that is easily 10 times as good as the name makes it sound.

All of your tiny choices add up – even decreasing your meat intake by just one less burger a week can result in the same environmental benefit as taking your car off the road for 320 miles.

You don’t need to make drastic change in your life in order to create change in the world around you, and lady magazines be damned, you don’t need a whole new you as we enter the new year.

Let’s throw that nonsense out the window and settle for a few new traditions instead. A little less shopping here, a few more reusable bags there, a meatless meal on the table a few times a week – and the knowledge that you are making a difference.

10 Steps to Succeed at Your New Year’s Resolution to Lose Weight.

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Losing weight was the number one new year’s resolution in 2012, according to University of Scranton Journal of Clinical Psychology, and with the percentage of Americans who are obese at 36%, it is highly likely that weight loss will be on top of many people’s resolution lists again this year.

Forty-five percent of Americans usually make new years resolutions. I’m one of them, are you?

The good news: Those of us who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain our goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions. Also, 75% of people who make their resolutions are able to keep them through the first week of the new year.

The bad news: Only 8% of people who make new year’s resolutions are able to succeed at them entirely to their satisfaction. Let’s try to raise that statistic to a higher percentage, and at the very least, help to make sure you and I are among the 8% who succeed at our resolutions this year!

Steps to Take to Ensure Your Success

1. Make your goal(s) measurable. For example, instead of saying that your new year’s resolution is to “lose weight,” it is more effective to set a well-defined measurable goal such as “I’d like to lose one to two pounds per week until I reach my goal of fifteen pounds lost” or “my goal is to fit back into my favorite pair of jeans.” Similarly, if you have a fitness resolution, rather than saying your goal is to “get strong” or “get fit,” it’s very likely to be more effective if you set concrete goals such as “my goal to be able to do 50 push-ups” or “I want to be able to do bicep curls with 30-pound dumbbells,” or “I will go to the gym 5 days per week.”

Instead of saying that your new year’s resolution is to “eat healthy,” you’ll be more likely to achieve the success you’re looking for if you set a goal such as “I will eat 4 servings of vegetables every day,” or “I will eat 1,500 calories or less per day and track it using MyPlate” or “I will eat less than 30 grams of sugar per day and track it on MyPlate.” If you’re a runner, your resolution could be to prepare to run a 5k in March, or a half marathon this summer, or to improve your time on whichever race you run.

Make your goal challenging, but achievable. Write down your goal, sign it, date it, and put it somewhere prominent. This year, my new year’s resolution is to complete 8 weeks of the Gunnar Challenge and lose eight pounds. (The rest of the LIVESTRONG.COM team is also in this with me, and you can join us too! Are you in?)

2. Dare yourself to do it. Sign up for a Dare on LIVESTRONG.COM such as “Dare to Track Food Daily,” “Dare to Walk Twenty Minutes a Day,” and “Dare to Take The Gunnar Challenge.” On the Dares, thousands of other like-minded LIVESTRONG.COM members are there online asking questions about how to get the goal accomplished, letting others know how they are making progress toward the goal, and offering support and motivation to each other.

3. Tell your friends and family. Share your resolution with your friends and family, and ask them what their resolutions are. This way, they understand your intention and what you are aiming to do, and some of them may even support you in it. You might also find that some of their goals are also to lose weight, eat healthy, exercise more, or get fit.

4. Reach out to your online social network for support and accountability. Letting your online network know your new year’s resolution is also helpful. They can help you to stay accountable. If your goal is to work out every day, log your workouts as status updates on Facebook or Twitter and tell what you did and how you feel afterward. If your goal is to eat more vegetables, take photos of your meals and upload them to Facebook or to a food blog. Your friends will likely leave comments praising your good efforts. Additionally, if you are having trouble getting motivation to work out on a particular morning, you can post a status update that you need motivation, and people might provide some or post inspiring quotes for you.

5. Find a workout buddy or online group. Having a workout buddy can help increase your motivation on those days in mid-January where you may be feeling less than thrilled about doing your workout. Scheduling time to to go running or lift weights with your buddy can make exercise more fun, and it can also make you less likely to skip your workouts.  My husband and I decided last year that we both wanted to do all 90 days of P90X. Since those workouts are an hour long each day, we were concerned we wouldn’t have time in our busy schedules. We agreed to set our iPhone alarms an hour earlier on work days at 6a.m. so that we would have time to do the hour-long P90X workouts together before getting ready for work. Because we both knew we needed to get up, we were less likely to push the “snooze” button. Also, there were definitely days where I did not feel like doing particular workouts such as Plyometrics or Ab Ripper X, but having a buddy helped make it seem more do-able. For example, some days we complained to each other how we were sore and we didn’t want to work out. One of us would say, “We can do this. Let’s get it done.”

If you don’t have any friends around who share your fitness goals, there are so many websites such as LIVESTRONG.COM where you can find likeminded individuals in the Forums, online Groups, and Dares. You can also join an official challenge group, such as the 8-week Gunnar Challenge, which I’m starting with my LIVESTRONG.COM teammates on Monday, Jan 21, 2013. When I lost 20 pounds this past summer, I did it as part of a challenge group. The comraderie, healthy competition, and support from the challenge croups members in our online Facebook group helped to get me through times when I wanted to go out and get a glass of wine, or eat a snack that wasn’t on my diet plan. For example, our challenge group members posted what it felt like to skip cake at friends’ birthday parties or to skip a beer with co-workers, and we knew that we were all making sacrifices in order to achieve our goals.
6. Prepare. This step is incredibly important. To succeed at weight loss or dieting, before you even begin, it’s important to remove temptations in your refrigerator, pantry, cupboards, or on your countertops. Find any junk food or high calorie food that you find too tempting (for me this means the bag of Kettle Corn, leftover holiday pumpkin pie, the English toffee, any cookies, even the healthy-sounding dark chocolate bars) and throw it away. If you’re concerned about wasting, just make yourself think of this moment and agree with yourself that you won’t buy any more of the offending food item for the first 6 months of the year.

Most importantly, plan out what you will eat for the week ahead and prepare it in advance. I always do this on Sundays. I cook up some chicken breast and steam some broccoli, asparagus, and spinach. Then I portion the chicken into 6-oz servings and put it into five or six different lunch-size Tupperware containers and in each one I’d also add some of the broccoli, spinach, or asparagus. Sometimes I add lettuce or arugula and make a grilled chicken salad. Sometimes I use salmon or tofu instead of chicken. Then each day as I’m heading out the door, I just grab one of these lunches, and heat it up in the microwave at work.

Also, prepare some healthy snacks that you enjoy and portion them in grab-and-go containers. On Sundays, I almost always boil six-to-ten eggs to bring to work as snacks throughout the week. Having healthy snacks on-hand is essential. Celery sticks bore me, so instead I slice up carrots, red peppers, and jicama and portion them out in baggies or small Tupperware containers. I bring the veggies to work with either a hard-boiled egg or a tablespoon and a half of almond butter, peanut butter or sunflower butter.

Preparation is also important for exercise goals. If your new year’s resolution is to go to the gym 5 days a week, look at the schedule of classes and plan which ones you will hit. Put them as appointments into your calendar so you will remember to get there. If you want to commit to a home fitness program such as P90X or INSANITY, look at the schedule, figure out how long you will need and which workouts you need to do each day.

7. Plan a reward for yourself. One of my former co-workers was trying to hit a goal weight and stay at it for a whole year. She loves clothes, and she promised herself a shopping spree when she reached her goal weight. She took this one step further and also made another rule that she could not buy herself any items of clothing when she was not at her target weight. This strategy of reward and “punishment” rule-making not only helped her to reach her goal weight — it also helped her maintain her goal weight over the whole year! She worked hard to keep herself eating and exercising properly so that she would be able to stay at her goal weight and so that she could allow herself to buy sweaters and blazers at J. Crew.

Of course, your reward doesn’t need to be clothing or other material goods, it can also be an experience such as going on a vacation or weekend get-away or even out to a special restaurant when you reach your goal. Make it something that you really want, and that really motivates you. Write down “If I reach ___ pounds, I will allow myself to buy/go to/do/eat at __________” and sign the piece of paper. Carry it with you in your wallet, bag, briefcase, or purse. When a cookie or brownie tempts you or you’re feeling like you don’t have the motivation for your workout, take out the piece of paper and remind yourself how much you want your reward.

Since some end goals might take a long time to reach, it probably also makes sense to reward yourself with small treats along the way for each week of your successful compliance. For example, for each week of exercising every day along with calorie tracking on MyPlate, you might decide to allow yourself to go out for a movie (skip the snack bar and instead bring carrot or celery sticks if you need something to gnaw on), get a manicure/pedicure, buy some cool new workout gear or running shoes, get a massage. The clothing, movies, and massages all worked to help motivate me to lose twenty pounds this past summer.

8. Visualize what success at your resolution looks and feels like. Spend a few minutes thinking about what it will look like and feel like when you achieve your goal. If your resolution is to fit in your favorite jeans again, imagine yourself wearing them and how you will feel. Perhaps you’ll be lighter in your step and it will increase your confidence in social situations. If your goal is to strengthen your abs, perhaps when you have reached your goal, you’ll feel less fatigue sitting at your desk or decrease any lower back pain you might have. Try to visualize your success in as much detail as possible and spend a few minutes each day to set an intention for yourself.

9. Believe in your ability to do this, praise yourself, and take pride. Have confidence in yourself and your ability to commit to your resolution, and be proud of each accomplishment along the way toward your goal. Thank yourself for every workout you get done and really let yourself feel proud. It takes guts and determination to workout and eat healthy, and you’re doing it. Great job!

10. If you mess-up, forgive yourself and recommit to your goal. Despite all your best efforts and attention to steps one through nine, you might occasionally mess up. We’re all human, and it happens to all of us. My high school reunion happened in the second month of my challenge group this past summer. Even though I had sworn off of alcohol for two months as part of the challenge group, and I had gone a whole month without having a beer at birthday parties, BBQs, and baby showers, when an old friend passed me a cocktail during the midst of the reunion, I ended up toasting with her and taking a sip, and the next thing I knew, I had finished the drink. Rather than allowing this slip-up to make me feel bad and snowball into trying desserts and hors d’oeuvres, I forgave myself and recommitted myself to my goal. When friends I hadn’t seen in years were taking shots at the bar and handing me drinks, I simply handed them to another friend and said I was all set. I ordered sparkling water with a lime, and continued talking and catching up with everyone. The best part, the next day, I didn’t have a headache or a hangover and I recommitted to my goal of refraining from drinking until the end of the Challenge. If you slip up, forgive yourself, and reign yourself back in. Remember how important your goal is, and remember why you want to achieve it.

I hope you’re now feeling like you have the information you need to set your intentions toward reaching all the goals that are important to you. Now’s the best time to get started, so let’s do this! 2013 is the year! And if you’re interested in losing 8-25 pounds in 8 weeks, go ahead and sign up for the Gunnar Challenge with me and my LIVESTRONG.COM teammates. We’ll be there online to support you along the way!

Also, add me on Twitter, and feel free to send me a tweet to let me know what your resolutions are this year. I’d love to hear about them.

*If you sign up for a course, Demand Media will receive a commission.

-Jess Barron

Jess Barron is VP of Editorial at LIVESTRONG.COM. After 15 years spent working at Internet start-ups with long hours sitting at a computer and free snacks in vending machines, one day Jess realized that she had gained 20 pounds. In summer 2012 in a test group for a new fitness product, Jess lost 20 pounds (15% of her body weight) in 60 days while building muscle and achieving definition in her abs and arms. Through using online tracking tools, including LIVESTRONG‘s MyPlate, Jess has kept the weight off, and she shares her tips and motivation in order to help others succeed on their fitness journeys. A longtime foodie and fan of Farmer’s Market fresh food, Jess particularly loves heirloom tomatoes, fresh figs with burrata cheese, and anything with pumpkin in it! Her love for food fuels her desire to exercise daily. Some of her favorite workout routines include running, BodyPump classes at the gym, P90X, INSANITY, mixed martial arts, and yoga. Jess has appeared on MSNBC’s “The Most,” ABC News Now, and XM satellite radio and her writing has appeared on Wired.com and Yahoo!

Source: Livestrong